Reinventing Firefox for Android • Hacker News Board

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#231

Post by iamrohitbanga » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 9:48 PM UTC

JaRail wrote: post #196

iamrohitbanga wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use firefox on desktop. But on mobile one major blocker for me is that Google assistant does not work with firefox browser on android.

How do you mean? I wasn't aware the assistant really did anything with Chrome. Certainly it renders some search results using the android webview. But otherwise, it launches any pages you click in whatever browser you want. Inside of Chrome, what assistant features are there? The voice recognition is part of the keyboard so all apps have that. Genuinely not sure what you're referring to.

Hmm I see. I think I was getting confused since I searched for browser app in settings and ended up setting browser app as well as Voice and Assist app as Firefox as they are in the same submenu.

If I choose Voice and Assist app as Firefox instead of Google then active edge, Ok Google does not work. May be I could just try setting browser app to firefox.

Let me give this combination a try for a few days. Browser is firefox and assist app is google which as you say still renders some links in android webview.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#232

Post by zcid » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 9:48 PM UTC

vast wrote: post #65

Just yesterday I thought it is really annoying that mobile browsers put the address bar on top, even worse if it is moving in and out. That way it is impossible come close to a native look and feel. Now FF puts the address bar on bottom. Quite a suprise but I think it is a pretty smart change.

I love the address bar at the bottom. It feels so much better on a mobile device. As a whole, this version is much nicer to use than the previous versions.

My two main gripes are the default search engine and telemetry. Both of these options should be set by the user on first launch. I don't want to use Google and I don't want to send data to Mozilla.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#233

Post by roca » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 9:51 PM UTC

lucideer wrote: post #222

Certhas wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until it's provided I would assume that it's a gross misrepresentation/exaggeration.

Other than putting Google Analytics on all Mozilla properties as sibling commenters have already mentioned (link to info on that here [0]), there is also the following: - as I mentioned in another comment, Firefox Preview comes with Google as a default search engine (not a huge issue) and with "search suggestions" enabled by default (which sends everything you ever type to Google). - Even if you disable search sugges…

This amounts to far less than "slapping Google tracking into everything they do", which reasonable people would interpret to include just using the browser. Reasonable people also understand that performing Google searches sends data to Google.

Safe Browsing DOES NOT reveal URLs to Google. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Safe_Browsing#Privacy and read the protocol spec or Firefox source code if you doubt this.

> Google Location Services, which sends your WiFi router SSID, SSIDs of routers in range, and hardware details, to Google. This is less clear cut as Mozilla's use of this service has been on-off over time, and varies per device.

Mozilla has made a significant investment to try to get away from this by building the Mozilla Location Service. In the meantime it's a straight tradeoff between quality of user experience and information leakage. Experience shows that degrading the user experience for some invisible and small privacy benefit is not a winning strategy.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#234

Post by fabrice_d » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 9:54 PM UTC

lucideer wrote: post #222

Certhas wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until it's provided I would assume that it's a gross misrepresentation/exaggeration.

Other than putting Google Analytics on all Mozilla properties as sibling commenters have already mentioned (link to info on that here [0]), there is also the following: - as I mentioned in another comment, Firefox Preview comes with Google as a default search engine (not a huge issue) and with "search suggestions" enabled by default (which sends everything you ever type to Google). - Even if you disable search sugges…

Safe Browsing doesn't report plaintext urls to Google. See https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Safe_Browsing and the more precisely the Update API it's using from https://developers.google.com/safe-browsing/v4/

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#235

Post by adzm » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 9:54 PM UTC

m-p-3 wrote: post #125

Not fond of the bottom address bar, I guess I'm not used to it because I always tap the top-right corner to switch tabs... I just need to get it in my muscle-memory, not a big deal. I still cross my fingers this will be configurable at some point. My main gripe is that I feel like bookmarks are now a second-class citizen in Firefox Preview, they're not as accessible. I could see my mobile bookmarks right on the new t…

Mobile Chrome is moving to address bar on top, buttons / tab switcher on the bottom.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#236

Post by roca » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 10:02 PM UTC

ec109685 wrote: post #180

lucideer wrote: post #127

- Talks about introducing a browser more focused on privacy - Comes with Google search suggestions enabled by default on first run (has a Google logo prominently displayed in the middle of the screen on first run in fact)

Google pays a large amount to be default search engine.

It seems highly unlikely that Google cares enough about suggestion data that they'd pay more for suggestion traffic than for just the searches.

It is much more likely that users expect search suggestions to work out of the box and some will bounce if they try a new browser that doesn't do that.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#237

Post by gloflo » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 10:06 PM UTC

bscphil wrote: post #168

gloflo wrote: post #110

If there is one thing I miss from current mobile Firefox, it's text reflow. Opera mobile did it perfectly. I want to be able to zoom in or out and have text reflowed to the screen width. This makes the web magnitudes nicer to use on a small screen. No cut off lines, no 10 lines per screen. Just convenient freedom over the primary tool we interact on the web: Text.

I wonder if this does what you expect? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fit-text-to-w...

Nope, does not work on HN. But thank you!

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#238

Post by fmakunbound » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 10:07 PM UTC

Tried it out. Love it.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#239

Post by arendtio » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 10:17 PM UTC

Most of the time it feels great already (sometimes it freezes for a few moments), but does someone know how/if it is possible to add Progressive Web Apps to the desktop with this Firefox for Android Preview?

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#240

Post by gnomewascool » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 10:19 PM UTC

a254613e wrote: post #216

lucideer wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're probably right but, as a member of that demographic: - I use Firefox, and have done continuously for a long time. I don't intend to switch to anything else, despite being very unhappy with the experience in many ways, as I consider it to be the "least worst" - I genuinely believe there are very easily achievable low-hanging fruit that Mozilla could implement that would at least please a large swathe of their t…

I'm with you on this one. I don't think mozilla is as privacy oriented as HN would make you think. * They pushed ad/extension for a TV show to everyone * They silently served modified installers to a small subset of users downloading firefox which sent all browsing data to a 3rd party by default. * Disabling experiments used for pushing the mr robot ad does not disable "normandy" - which is practically the same thing…

> I don't think mozilla is as privacy oriented as HN would make you think.

> * They pushed ad/extension for a TV show to everyone

I assume you're talking about the "mr robot" thing here as well. One can accuse it of being many things, but it wasn't a privacy violation, as no data was sent (or planned to be sent) to anybody, either to Mozilla or any third-party. (It was silly, an abuse of studies, a source of worry for those who monitor their list of add-ons for suspicious items, and a strategic error.)